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Tom Ashbrook
Tom has served as a member of the Core Community of the Order of Imago Christi, since 2004 when he co-founded the ministry with Bill O’Byrne and Endi Kovacs. In 2000, he joined Church Resource Ministries (now: Novo) to establish their spiritual formation ministry. As a missionary with Imago Christi, Tom develops spiritual formation resources and coaches Christian leaders and churches to live and lead with a spiritual authority grounded in loving intimacy with Jesus. He provides spiritual direction for pastors and missionaries and teaches in spiritual formation discovery seminars and other spiritual formation settings. He has also taught spiritual direction as part of Selah, a ministry of Leadership Transformations.
Tom Benson
Although I was an active Christian during my adult life, I longed for something more with the Lord than I was experiencing. This thirst and longing for a deeper relationship with God began to be satisfied in 2014 when I began meeting with a Spiritual Director. As I expressed my desire to grow my relationship with the Lord, I began a two-year Spiritual Formation certificate program with the Soul Care Institute in 2015, and became a Commissioned Presenter for Contemplative Outreach in 2018. I completed another two-year certificate program with LTI’s Selah Spiritual Direction Training in April 2019. During this season, I founded the Center for Contemplative Living, Inc. in 2017 at New Garden Park Abbey and home to Church of the Redeemer – Greensboro, NC.
My relationship with the Order of Imago Christi began in January 2019 after reading Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook, and culminated in me joining the Order as a Spiritual Formation Missionary in 2020. I believe God’s calling in my life is to share with others what I have experienced in my spiritual journey with the Lord. Spiritual Formation and Soul Care is a vital part in transforming our relationship with God from the false-self (ego) to our true-selves in Christ’s likeness.
Ralph & Valerie Dawson
Ralph is a spiritual director and spiritual coach. He uses his spiritual gifting to come alongside and encourage Christian leaders, both in the local church as well missionaries working cross-cultural. Ralph joined CRM in 2014 after twenty-six years of ministry as a missionary with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Attending Letourneau University, Ralph graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering Technologies and a minor in Aviation Maintenance. Two more years of pilot training at Moody Aviation and then he joined MAF with his wife Valerie and lived and worked twelve years in the remote jungles of Indonesia supporting local church pastors, missionaries and evangelist, bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the isolated people groups.
Roy Graham
Roy Graham is a spiritual director and has been a part of Imago Christi for 8 years. His central calling is to help people experience the Love of God in tangible ways that leads to transformation of how they live out every area of their life. Through out his time with Imago Christi the Lord has shaped his ministry with a special interest in lay leaders and inner healing ministry. Prior to joining Imago Christi he was a pastor for a few years in the Evangelical Free Church of America.
Liz Hayden
The Imago Christi Community is saddened to announce the passing of Liz Hayden on Wednesday morning, June 26, 2019 in Winter Springs, FL. She is survived by her husband, Steve Jenkins and her “kitties.” But we rejoice through the tears that she has finally met her Beloved Jesus face to face.
Liz had already been struggling with cancer when she met Tom Ashbrook and Imago Christi in 2007. As far as he is aware, she never resorted to chemo therapy, but relied on healing prayer and a naturopathic diet. Tom says, “I saw God use this journey to form a profound faith and compassion for the suffering of others in Liz. She demonstrated an amazing ability to enter into a spiritual direction relationship with others. I heard many reports of transformed lives at the hands of her loving care.”
Despite her increasing battle with cancer over the last two years, Liz told us: “I want to continue with my Spiritual Direction and retreat ministry, and honor and serve the Lord with all the energy that I have.” As long as she was able, Liz worked locally with the African Refugee Church Alliance to assist with the transition issues and spiritual needs of immigrants and form a spiritual director’s group for African refugees.
The Imago Christi Community will miss Liz, her uncompromising love for the Lord, and her faithful commitment to lead others to encounter his life-changing love.
Tom Hillman
Tom Hillman is a christocentric and biblical United Methodist pastor serving as a "missionary” to the United Methodist Church. My wife Holly and I are recently retired having pastored in various Church settings in both California and Nevada for the past 41 and 1/2 years. We have four grown children. For 15 years I provided leadership for the recruitment and selection of New Church Development Pastors for the United Methodist Church.
Currently serving with Imago Christi, my passion is helping people find their purpose and meaning in their relationship with Jesus Christ. As a Spiritual Formation Coach nothing is more satisfying than watching someone "blossom” and find their "zone” or "sweet spot” in their Christian life. In addition to the St. Teresa Mansions Mapping Tool, I also am equipped to integrate the D.I.S.C. Profile, Meyers-Briggs, Enneagram, and Birkman within the Coaching process. Also as a trail guide/spiritual leader my unique calling is to bring Spiritual Formation to the group outdoor adventure context of long distance cycling, long distance kayaking, hiking, climbing, and other endurance activities. Words others have used to describe me: "spiritual, intense, kind, and adventurous”.
Tim Musslewhite
Tim has been a CRM (now: Novo) Staff Member since 2013 and is a part of the Core Community of the Order of Imago Christi, serving as a spiritual formation coach and spiritual director, shepherding the souls of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders.
He has over 33 years of pastoral experience, serving in a variety of capacities, most recently having served for ten years as the Pastor of Spiritual Formation at LifeSpring Covenant Church in Loveland, CO. In addition, he is a certified life coach (www.FlightPathCoaching.com) and a certified spiritual director, completing training at the C. John Weborg Center for Spiritual Direction at North Park Theological Seminary in 2009. Tim is the Team Leader of the Midwest Covenant Conference Spiritual Directors Network, and a member of the Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association and the Association of Covenant Spiritual Directors.
Kevin Navarro
Kevin serves as a spiritual director and spiritual formation coach for pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders around the world. He is particularly interested in helping leaders navigate ministry trauma—also known as vicarious trauma or secondary trauma. He longs to support those on the frontline who feel “beat up” and are doing their best to navigate the chaos around them. Sometimes, there is even a profound “feeling” of the absence of God. In light of this, Kevin defines spiritual direction as a ministry of belonging in love that awakens awareness of God’s Presence and enables discernment of the daily choices that lead to union with God.
Kevin also serves on the leadership team for Imago Christi supporting the team leader and providing discernment for the community. He came to Imago Christi and Novo Mission with three decades of ministry experience: as an International Director with Continental Ministries, as a pastor at Bear Valley Christian Church, and as a pastor at Bethany Evangelical Free Church. He is ordained in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) but is passionate about detaching from tribalism and sectarianism that hinder us from learning from history and other traditions. Kevin and Susan were trained as spiritual directors through the Formation in Soul Care Program at Restoring Connections (formerly The Vincentian Center for Spirituality at Work).
Susan Navarro
Not long after being married, God called my husband and me into the ministry. I have served as a ministry and pastor’s wife for twenty-eight years. And as the result of that experience, God has placed it upon my heart to encourage, befriend and to serve as a spiritual coach to other ministry wives. I want to help them abide in Christ to know the Lord’s loving presence in the midst of their busyness, loneliness, ups and downs, ministry demands and spiritual warfare that occurs regularly in a pastor’s family.
During the years that my husband was a pastor, he also taught at Denver Seminary and both of us had the opportunity to serve in their training and mentoring program. I loved the opportunities I had to be a spiritual friend and mentor to women who were in seminary. I am also involved with the Restoring Connections program, learning how to offer spiritual direction to those who are economically poor, homeless, or in otherwise marginalized circumstances.
Bill O'Byrne
Team Leader and Co-Founder of Imago Christi
Bill O'Byrne was an overseas missionary with Church Resource Ministries (CRM) in Saint Petersburg, Russia from 1993 to 2015 with his wife Priscilla, where they raised four children. Bill taught Spiritual Formation and Biblical Studies at Saint Petersburg Christian University for 18 years. During Bill's tenure in Russia, he co-founded the Order of Imago Christi within CRM (now: Novo) in 2004 together with Tom Ashbrook and Endi Kovacs. Bill and his family moved to the US in 2015 to take up the team leadership role in Imago Christi and presently live near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
John Pyrc
John, a lifelong contemplative and fusion of various branches of Christianity (Catholic, Charismatic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Evangelical), found his tribe and joined CRM and the Order of Imago Christi in 2016. John’s calling is to help equip the saints to encounter and abide in Jesus’ union with the Father through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and to join Jesus in his ongoing ministry of worship, communion, intercession and mission.
John earned a M.Div. from Denver Theological Seminary in 2013, with a focus on the synergy of Spiritual Formation, Theology, and Philosophy for integrating the heart, mind and body—the entire living soul—in union with Christ.
John and his wife Kathy currently live in Littleton, Colorado, enjoying frequent walks, good conversation, opening their home, and a delightfully blended family of five adult children and five grandchildren. The worship and serve at Centennial Covenant Church.
Kathy Pyrc
Kathy Pyrc became a core member of Imago Christi in 2016, following a calling from the Lord to come alongside those seeking deeper intimacy with God.
Previously, Kathy was an Instructional Coach and teacher for 25 years. Kathy has invested herself in the ministry of the church in Women’s ministry and Children’s Ministry. Kathy is currently being trained by the Imago Christi leadership in the area of spiritual formation coaching. She is a co-presenter for the Discovery events, and has worked with the team to develop Post Discovery Exercises. She is also currently working on developing a retreat for parents in the area of spiritual growth for children.
Kathy was widowed in 2006, and has a special heart for those going through loss, transition, and disappointment with God. Kathy and John were married in 2011, and enjoy their blended family of five adult children and six grandchildren as well as partnering in spiritual formation ministry.
Melanie Saint James
Melanie Saint James, D.Min., is an ordained pastor and missionary with Church Resource Ministries (now: Novo) and its spiritual formation ministry, Imago Christi. Melanie provides spiritual direction, teaches classes, and leads retreats for churches, Christian leaders, and missionaries yearning to develop a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus. Melanie is also a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator specializing in the areas of courage, shame, vulnerability, and worthiness based on the work and research of Dr. Brené Brown.
Geordie & Sharon Ziegler
Geordie and Sharon Ziegler serve with Imago Christi as spiritual formation coaches. During their marriage of more than 30 years, they have lived in four countries, raised three children, and pastored two churches. They have led numerous classes, retreats, and small groups with a passion for healthy marriages. They reside in Camas, WA.